It was suggested that sysObjectID is the vehicle, since MIB-II System group
makes it mandatory to every company to assign an OID (under their
Enterprise MIB). It was further observed, however, that this OID is assigned
to the AGENT not necessarily the device (as in the case where a network
"brick" agent is serving 3 serial or parallel attached printers.
Jay will propose an additional object in the prtGeneral group for
(what I commonly refer to as) Name, Rank and Serial Number (I think we
already did serial number).
Although I'm not entirely opposed to such a new object (I, myself, stated
how peculiar it is that we have NRS for Input and Output bins but not the
whole printer)... I feel somewhat obliged to attempt to point out WHY
we ended up this way and how IBM structured it's private MIB in response to
the current RFC1759 architecture.
I think the reason we do not have NRS for the printer is due to hrDeviceID!
If a network "brick" is managing 3 printers, presumably it has a table of
devices - all device type PRINTER, each with a seperate hrDeviceID. The
agent in the "brick" holds the sysObjectID in this case. Syntax for
hrDeviceID is ProductID, but there in no reason this can't be given as an
OID... the same one that is registered for the printer or a different
one... as long as it is registered under the Enterprise.I guess the reason
I'm raising this is because I thought this was the agreement and direction
of the Printer MIB for so long, and I think it works. Not that I'm
opposed to making things better.
IBM has chosen to structure our Enterprise registry in such a way that
attempts to "reflect" the printer MIB and the hrMIB where appropriate.
Thus, we have sysObjectID's registered for AGENTS and hrDeviceID's
registered for PRINTERS. In most cases, then, a printer will have both.
I have decided to post our structure at pwg@pwg.org/pwg/pub/snmpmib/
enterprise/ibm to assist this discussion. In doing this, I am exposing
some of our private mib, so please don't be *too* critical if, for
some reason, you find our approach not to your liking.
I know some will be unhappy, for some reason I was unable to get my driver
to print to file under Freelance so I've only posted the .pre file as of
present. If someone can tell me how or can filter this to PS, please do.